Last updated 17 October 2026
Podyglot is made by BaseCodex, in the United Kingdom.
We are the "controller" of the personal data described in this policy. That means we decide why and how it is used, and we are responsible for it under UK data protection law: the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, because the law does not require one for an organisation like ours.
This policy covers:
Apple runs the App Store, payments, iCloud and your iPhone. Apple's own privacy policy covers what Apple does with your information: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
What. Your lessons, quiz and exam answers and results, the words and phrases you have met, how long you studied each day, your plan days, levels and streaks, your exam course choice, and your settings. Each record also carries a random code for the device it came from, so that progress from two devices adds up correctly.
Where. On your iPhone. If you are signed in to iCloud, it is also stored in your own private iCloud storage, so it follows you to your other devices.
Who can see it. Only you. It is kept in your iCloud account, not on our computers, and we cannot read it. The only part our service learns is the level number you reach (section 4.7), and, only while you are on a family board with someone else, a short summary of your progress (section 4.8).
Why. To run your course and keep it the same on all your devices.
If you are not signed in to iCloud, your progress stays on that iPhone only.
Apple sells Podyglot subscriptions and takes your payment. Apple keeps your payment details. We never see them.
When you start a subscription or free trial, renew, change plan, turn off auto-renew, get a refund, or redeem an offer, Apple sends our service a signed record of it. When you are signed in to iCloud, your app also sends our service the signed records your iPhone holds. These records include:
Why. To unlock Podyglot on all your devices, to work out the circle price and free months fairly, and to keep an accurate record of who has which free offers.
When you use the app while signed in to iCloud, it sends our service your Podyglot account code. That is how our service knows that requests come from the same learner.
The app also uses Apple's App Attest to prove that each request comes from a genuine copy of Podyglot on a genuine Apple device. Your iPhone makes a security key that never leaves it. Our service keeps the public half of that key, Apple's statement about it, the date, and which learner the key acts for. Each request also says which build of the app sent it.
If you sign in to a different iCloud account, Podyglot treats you as a different learner and makes a new key.
Why. To stop fake requests, to protect free offers from abuse, and to make sure nobody can act as another learner.
When you first open the app, you choose your Podyglot name. Our service adds a number and keeps it. You can hold up to four names over time. You can change the one you use at most once every 30 days.
A Podyglot name is never given to anyone else, even after you stop using Podyglot. To make sure of that, we keep every name we have given out. See section 9.
If you are not signed in to iCloud, your name is kept against your iPhone's security key instead of your account code.
The words come from lists we chose to be suitable for children.
You can see your name in Settings, under "My Podyglot name".
If you use these features, our service records:
Why. To run these features as the app describes them, and to stop the same free offer being claimed twice.
Invite messages. When you share an invite, you choose the app that sends it, for example Messages or WhatsApp. The message contains your Podyglot name and the invite code. That app's own privacy policy applies to the message.
A teacher gets a teacher code from us and sets up a class. Pupils ask to join with a six-letter class code.
If you are a pupil and ask to join a class, you give us:
When your teacher lets you in, we add a four-digit number, for example "S1B M-SMI-4821". We also keep when you asked, whether your teacher let you in, turned you away or took you out, whether you left, and whether you pressed "Let my teacher know".
We never ask for your full name. Your teacher can type your name next to your mark in their own app. That note stays on the teacher's iPhone. Podyglot never sends it to us or to anyone else. (Like other app data, it is part of the teacher's own iPhone backup.)
If you are a teacher, we record your teacher code, your class, its join code and seats, whether your free term renews, and the actions you take in the class.
Why. So teachers can give pupils free access and see who is in their class.
Your course is divided into levels. When you complete a level, the app tells our service the language and the level number. Our service records the time. Nothing else about your learning is sent.
Why. Completing a level can earn your household a gift token. If you are in a class, your teacher sees your level.
The person who pays for Podyglot can open a family board and send its code to whoever they like. You join only if you enter the code, ask, and they let you in. The app tells you exactly what is shared before anything is sent.
What. For the board: who opened it, its code, who asked to join, who was let in, turned down, taken off or left, and when. For each member, while they share a board with someone else, a summary their app works out: the level they are on, their plan day in each mode, how many of the last seven days they studied, today's progress rings, the number of words they have met in each mode, and the day it was worked out. Only numbers and a few fixed words. Never your answers, the words or phrases themselves, or your subscription.
Who can see it. Everyone on the same board, including the person who opened it, sees each member's Podyglot name, the level they last completed and when, and their summary. The person who opened it also sees who is asking to join, by Podyglot name. Nobody else sees anything. A name you type next to a member stays on your iPhone and is never sent.
How long. Only the latest summary is kept, never a history. It is deleted as soon as you no longer share a board with anyone: when you leave, are taken off, or the board is closed. The record of who joined and left is kept with our other records (section 9).
Why. So the person who pays, and the family they choose, can see how everyone is getting on. Being on a board gives you nothing else: it does not share a subscription (only Apple's Family Sharing does that) and it does not count towards a circle.
If the app crashes, freezes, uses too much of your iPhone's processor, or writes too much to its storage, iOS may later give the app a diagnostic report. We understand that iOS does this only if you have turned on Share With App Developers (Settings, Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements).
The app sends each report to a database we control inside Apple's iCloud. A report contains:
A report contains no learning data, no name and no email address. But iCloud notes which iCloud user saved each report, using the same identifier your Podyglot account code is made from. So a report can be linked to your Podyglot account code.
A report can only be saved when you are signed in to iCloud.
Why. To find and fix bugs.
Apple may also give us crash reports and app usage statistics through App Store Connect, if you chose to share them with app developers. Apple gives us these in a form we cannot link to you.
The app checks for new daily listening content when it opens, when you come back to it, and every five minutes while it is open. It downloads the content from a public website hosted by GitHub. These requests carry no account information. Like any request on the internet, they show GitHub your IP address and basic technical details, such as the app's name and the iOS version. GitHub's own privacy statement applies to that.
Why. To give you each day's new listening content without an app update.
Daily reminders are off until you turn them on. Your iPhone schedules them itself. Nothing about them is sent to us.
The app also receives silent notifications through Apple's iCloud, so it can fetch the progress you made on your other devices. The app does not send us your notification token.
If you email us, we keep your email address, your message and our reply, so we can help you and keep a record of what we agreed.
If you test a pre-release version through Apple's TestFlight, Apple shares with us the name and email address it invited you with, and any feedback, screenshots or crash reports you send. Test versions talk to a separate test copy of our service. They also keep a technical log on your iPhone, which leaves it only if you choose to send it to us.
We (BaseCodex) can see everything our subscription service holds, through an admin console. We use it to run the service, to help you, and to deal with abuse. We cannot see your lessons, scores or answers in iCloud.
UK data protection law says we need a lawful basis for each use of personal data. Ours are:
| What we use | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Subscription records, Podyglot names, invites, circles, households, gift tokens, classes, family boards and levels | Contract: we need them to provide what you signed up for. |
| Family board progress summaries | Consent: you choose to join a board and can leave at any time, which deletes them. |
| The device check, request limits, account locks, and keeping records of free offers | Legitimate interests: preventing fraud and abuse, and keeping reliable records. |
| Crash reports | Legitimate interests: finding and fixing bugs. |
| Daily content downloads | Contract: delivering the content the app offers. |
| Emails you send us | Legitimate interests: answering you. |
Where a learner is a child, we rely on legitimate interests rather than contract wherever contract may not apply.
Your learning progress in iCloud is stored by Apple in your account, at your choice, and we cannot access it.
We do not sell personal data. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.
These companies help us run Podyglot:
We may share information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights or safety of our learners, other people or BaseCodex.
If Podyglot or BaseCodex is ever sold or reorganised, this information may pass to the new owner, who must keep to this policy.
Some of these companies are based in the United States and may access data from there. When data leaves the UK, we rely on the UK's adequacy regulations for the Netherlands and the rest of the EEA, and for US companies the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the International Data Transfer Addendum, as each supplier offers.
| Information | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Learning progress on your iPhone | Until you delete the app. |
| Learning progress in iCloud | Until you delete it (section 12). |
| Subscription service records: subscriptions, account codes, device keys, invites, circles, households, gift tokens, classes, family board memberships and levels | We keep these indefinitely at the moment. |
| Podyglot names | Permanently, so a name is never given to anyone else. |
| Family board progress summaries | The latest only, and only while you share a family board with someone. Deleted when you leave, are taken off, or the board is closed. |
| Crash reports | Nothing deletes them automatically at the moment. Ask us and we will delete the reports linked to you (section 12). |
| Our service's technical logs | About 30 days. |
| Database restore copies kept by Neon | Up to 7 days. |
| Emails | As long as we need them to help you. |
Why our subscription records are kept. Our subscription service keeps its records in an append-only log. Every event is added as a new entry. Entries are never edited or removed by the service. The database refuses to change or delete them, even for us, unless we deliberately switch that protection off. This protects learners: a payment, a free month or a claimed invite can never be lost or quietly changed. It also means records are not deleted automatically.
Many Podyglot learners are at school, studying for GCSE French. We built Podyglot with that in mind.
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
How to ask. Email stan@basecodex.com. Tell us your Podyglot name (Settings, "My Podyglot name"). Other learners can see Podyglot names, so we may ask for something more to check that the data is yours.
We reply within one month. It is free.
Complaints. We would like the chance to put things right first. You can also complain to the ICO: ico.org.uk, or 0303 123 1113.
There is no button in the app that deletes your data. This is what you can do today.
On your iPhone. Delete the app. This removes your learning progress and settings from that iPhone. iOS may keep a few small technical items in the iPhone's keychain, such as a random device code and a reference to the security key. They contain no name and are used only if you install Podyglot again.
In iCloud. First delete Podyglot from every device that has it. If a device still has your progress, it will upload its copy again. Then, in the Settings app, tap your name, then iCloud, then Manage Account Storage, then Podyglot, then Delete Data from iCloud.
Your subscription. Cancel it in the Settings app: tap your name, then Subscriptions. Cancelling stops payments. It does not delete any records.
Family boards. Leaving every family board you are on (Settings, Family board) deletes your progress summary from our service at once.
Our subscription service. Deleting the app or your iCloud data does not touch what our subscription service holds. For that, email stan@basecodex.com with your Podyglot name. Our records are append-only (section 9), so deleting them is a manual job for us. We will remove, or permanently disconnect from you, the entries that relate to you. We may keep what we must, for example to honour a subscription or free period that is still running, to deal with a refund, or to make sure the same free offer is not claimed twice. Your Podyglot name will be retired and never given to anyone else. We will tell you what we kept and why.
Crash reports. Email us and we will delete the reports linked to your Podyglot account code.
Information Apple holds, such as your purchases and your Apple Account: see privacy.apple.com.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the ICO when the law requires it.
Our service applies the app's rules automatically. For example, it works out whether your circle qualifies for the circle price, whether your household has had its free month, and it blocks a device for a while if it keeps sending invalid requests. None of these has a legal effect on you. If you think one is wrong, email us and a person will look at it.
When we change this policy, we will update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters to you, we will also tell you in the app before it takes effect.
BaseCodex, United Kingdom. Email: stan@basecodex.com